Catching up...

Well hello. I know I’ve been pretty bad with this posting (but hey, not too many people read it anyways). Either way, you’ll all be happy to know that although work still blows, it’s picking up a bit. Unfortunately I have been a poor blogger, not updating you with my super exciting life in the kitchen class.

I’m still in Level 3. We’ve been working alone now. Although I worked by myself for our first beef bourguignon dish (and struggled!!), I have been doing poissoner and patissier, which is a lot easier. Like… A LOT easier. For the most part, fish only takes a hot minute to cook. And for the most part, the desserts we make are baked for a while, and we have plenty of time to sit around and twiddle our thumbs. We really have no excuse for our desserts to be late. But the garde manger/saucier side has it rough.

There is practically no time to eat in level 3. We don’t get family meal, and we barely have time to eat the food we make. Not to mention, we’re each making 4 complete servings of 2 dishes!

Oh, you’ll all be super excited to know (sarcasm?) that my dad is getting me a pretty dope digital camera for the merry ole Christmas. I will then be able to show you exactly what a cocotte is, and the process of making it, and I can show you my kitchen whites... etc, etc.

We also got new hats. We used to wear a cylindrical, open-ended piece of paper. The school estimated that they will save thousands of dollars a year if they get us our own hats, and we wash them. I think we are the guinea pigs, and the incoming classes will have to pay for them when they enroll. These caps are flatter, closed, cotton caps, with a little bit of elastic in the back. They’re interesting. But at least we don’t throw away the paper all the time. I like them for that reason. They also make us look a little sleeker. But who really cares.

Ok. I see I left off at the poached eggs and poached chicken dish. After that I worked by myself on a Farmer’s soup and beef burgundy. This was the same set of dishes we did in the last class (which is, in fact, 4 classes later), however, I did the dessert and fish portion of it this time around (a flan and shallow poached flounder).

The soup is a real pain vegetable broth based soup! First and foremost, you need to take some of your trimmings and make a vegetable stock. That’s the first step. You also need to cut a bunch of vegetables (carrots, turnips, potatoes, leeks, celery) into batons (jardiniere) and then into 1 cm squared by 1 mm thick tiles (the leeks and celery are left in their original shape, but cut into tiles). That’s a LOT of taillage (cutting) for a pretty plain soup. While you’re doing this, you need to sear your beef, and vegetables for the beef burgundy and get them in the oven. It’s a really difficult set of dishes to get your timing right. When I did it, I over salted the soup, and didn’t think about watering it down with some extra vegetable stock I had leftover. I was aware of it, but didn’t remedy it. I added a little water, but not enough. Salt is a powerful spice, and although I thought I was getting a grasp on its power, it was a humbling experience to present such a salty dish. I need to work on that, amongst other things.

I also want to take this moment to redact some things I said recently about being “2nd” in the class. That is bullocks. My classmates are pretty damn intense. We are a gung-ho, get to business class. We are not, however, a cut throat, “I hope your food burns” type of intense, we are all very helpful and supportive of one another, but I feel I am level with or slightly above or below a number of the other people in the class. So I take back my pride in being “2nd” in the class, because it’s really worth nothing now.

Moving right along, the beef burgundy I made, because I was pressed for time, was not fully developed. The flavor was there, but the sinews didn’t break down enough. It was delicious, but it wasn’t right. All this will change.

In between then and now, I worked with a teammate, making seared pork chops with pommes darphin (shredded potatoes packed into a pan and fried), with a salad nicoise as the garde manger dish. Both of which were pretty good according to the chef. And then we started working alone in the poissoner/patissier section. I feel, probably because of all the excess time we have in these positions, my food has been coming out pretty good.

The first day we made the apple tart and a salmon served with rice and spinach. We made the pate brisee first (the dough, not sweet, with an egg) because it takes a while to rest in the fridge, followed by the apple compote filling. I browned the compote a little, which isn’t good, but I simply did not use the part that touched the bottom and browned, so it was fine. This was our first class working alone, and both sides were late in presenting. It’s just a matter of getting used to it. Let me say, we needed to sift through a huge bowl of spinach pulling off stems. That was a bitch. A few minutes of my life I wish I had back. But it adds to the final presentation.

My rice was the best among our group (that day). At the chef’s request I threw in some fresh chopped thyme, and added a nice amount of salt and pepper. I was impressed because it was indeed delicious. And the thyme added a little color contrast against the pasty white rice. Keep in mind, you just need less than a sprigs worth of chopped thyme leaves. It’s a very potent herb. The salmon was about ¾” thick, then partially cut down the middle, and butterflied open. Its a beautiful looking pattern that is made when the grain of the fish is butterflied, and then grilled with nice marks. Its really a delicious and beautiful preparation. Place the fish partially over the rice, some spinach on the side, and nap it with some sauce vin blanc (reduced wine with fish stock, reduced some more, then cream added and reduced again). It’s a delicious, delicate sauce that compliments most fish dishes.

The apple tart was served with a dollop of fresh whipped cream and a tiny piece of mint. My apple slices could have been a bit thinner, but they were still pretty good. The crust was perfect, and it all looked great.

The next class was my shining moment. We made a sautéed skate with pommes risolee (potatoes, turned to 5 cm football shapes, poached, browned in oil, finished with butter in the oven) and a genoise cake (basic sponge cake, with apricot filling and crème anglaise on the side).

The skate… Take a moment to look up what a skate looks like alive. NASTY. It’s a member of the sting ray family. Go figure. Not super disgusting, but still ugly. We only use the wings, and they’re pretty easy to fillet. ALTHOUGH, they have spikes on the top skin side and they’re disgustingly slimy, which is actually a sign of freshness.

This came out ok. Let me tell you, always a) heat up your pan with oil or clarified butter so that its super hot, and nothing will stick; and b) cook the fish on a HIGH heat, for a brief amount of time. The browned color is crucial.

Anyways, I really want to discuss the genoise. It’s a “simple” sponge cake recipe, but one of the most frequently used and most versatile in French pastries. You need to gently stir the eggs with sugar over a water bath, not exceeding 110F. I never quite made it to 110F. I was wondering how that was going to affect my cake. But I didn’t feel like stirring it over a water bath for much longer, so I just moved on (it was a good call). You fold in some cake flour, and pop that puppy in a pan and in the oven.

KEEP AN EYE ON IT. This goes without saying for everything you put in the oven, but a dry Genoise is just about worthless (not priceless). It’s ready when it just starts to separate from the pan, and the top center springs back to the touch. A golden color is desired, but if it’s ready, then it’s ready. I pulled mine out when it barely separated from the pan, but it was definitely cooked. Immediately invert it onto a cooling rack, drape some moist paper towels over it, and carry on with your life.

I returned to it after we presented our fish. We had plenty of time to finish the cake. When cool, you cut it in half and moisten the cut halves with a simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water brought just to a boil, finished with a splash of apricot brandy, specifically for this preparation). Here is where detail comes to play. You add a THIN layer of apricot jam to the middle. The two halves of the cake should fit back on each other nearly seamlessly. If you put too much jam, it looks pretty bad. The halves look like and are separated, and the cake is too tall. So get that jam in there, a nice thin layer. You WILL taste it, but it won't overpower the flavor of the cake you just made from scratch. Place the other half back on it and moisten the top with some simple syrup. Don’t drench the top. It will turn to mush. Then proceed to brush on a thin layer of apricot glaze (all over the top and sides). Press some toasted almonds on the sides to [attempt to] hide the seams, sprinkle powdered sugar on the top of each slice, and serve with some crème anglaise and fresh fruits.

I was really impressed with the way it turned out. I did not have a piece before presenting it to the chef. For all I knew it could have tasted like shit. But it looked like a million bucks (or a fine piece of genoise).

Right off the bat, chef was pleased with the presentation. It really looked great. I overheard him tell some other presenters that the crème anglaise should be spooned along side it, rather than directly under it. So I did that.

Most importantly, the taste… It was, and these are not my words, “perfect.” It was moist, had the perfect amount of filling, and the crème anglaise was also perfect. Everything was cold and refreshing, and the flavors were crisp and fresh. He said it was “perfect” and by far the best one of the night. Another chef walked into the class for some reason and Chef Rob said, “Hey, you gotta try this.” I didn’t want to indulge in this perfection I allegedly achieved so I did not listen to or look at his reaction, but I took the whole experience as a good thing. In fact, I didn’t even have a piece of the cake until the next day! I usually give this type of thing away to anyone who will take it, but I had to take it home and try it.

It’s friggin’ good. I have half of the cake left. If I weren’t house/pet sitting at my mom’s house all of my friends would have devoured it by now (I’d like to hope so at least).

I’ll put up a separate post with yesterday’s class. 3 pages of rambling should keep you busy for a while (and by you, I mean me!).